SLO County highlighting personal COVID-19 stories
SLO County’s first story in the series comes from Jennifer Casteneda, a Shell Beach resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in the fall of 2020.
–This story is part of a series highlighting the impact that COVID-19 has had on SLO County community members.
As COVID-19 cases increase in San Luis Obispo County, more people may contract the virus and some could get seriously ill. To help shed some light on the different ways COVID-19 impacts people and reduce the stigma around the illness, the County Public Health Department is asking for anyone who contracted the virus to consider sharing their story.
SLO County’s first story in the series comes from Jennifer Casteneda, a Shell Beach resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in the fall of 2020. This is her story:
“It really hit home for me when I lost my sense of taste and smell. I had just made a salad and poured some dressing on it and then…nothing. It was bleu cheese dressing and I couldn’t taste a thing. Not a thing. That’s when I knew it was COVID.
I had been feeling just ‘off’ for a few days by then – feeling some sinus pressure and a very slight headache, just thought it was allergies or that I hadn’t had coffee that day. I was also feeling foggy – doing things that I wouldn’t normally do, like putting the milk back into the cupboard, not the refrigerator. Things like that. I told my sister, who knew I had job interviews coming up and she said I was probably just distracted, so I wrote it off. It wasn’t until I looked back that I realized that all of these things were the earliest signs that I was sick.
When I tested positive, I freaked out. My parents and I hadn’t seen each other for a while, we were being really good – but we had seen each other that weekend, before I realized I was sick. They stayed at my house. We hung out, shared meals together. So I called them and said, ‘Are you sitting down?’
They thankfully never got sick. Neither did my boyfriend. And I’m so grateful for that. I’m also so grateful that my COVID experience was a mild one. I had a headache, fogginess, and a slight cough. I never had a fever so each time my temperature was taken, I didn’t think I was positive. Overall, it was incredibly mild and I feel incredibly lucky for that.
I recently lost my uncle who lives down in LA to COVID. One day we were on the phone with him, talking about the Dodgers win – he was in the hospital at that point, but seemed to be doing really well. The next day we got the call that he was gone. So I know everyone’s case is not as mild as mine.
I still struggle with how I got it. I was in between jobs at that point so I wasn’t going into an office. I wasn’t really going anywhere, which was why I was so surprised when it happened. I saw my boyfriend and went to church and the gym (this was back when both were open inside). But we were always spaced out, and people had masks on most of the time – they even took our temperatures at the door – so I felt like things were pretty safe. To this day, I don’t know when and where I came in contact with it. The contact tracers told me it’s okay, it’s hard to know where you might have been exposed, and some never do. But still I wonder sometimes.”
Do you have COVID-19 symptoms or do you think you may have been recently exposed? Make an appointment for a free COVID-19 test at www.EmergencySLO.org/testing.
Have a COVID-19 story that you’d like to share? Submit your contact information here.
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